The International Monetary Fund is now on record saying what everyone realizes about the Greek bailout: it didn’t work very well.

Market confidence was not restored, the banking system lost 30% of its deposits and the economy encountered a much deeper than expected recession with exceptionally high unemployment.

The full report, which for unknown reasons was originally internal and marked “strictly confidential”, is now public; Joseph Cotterill has the best roundup of the key findings.

The report is interesting not only because of its authorship. It’s a well-written and informative read, and Pawel Morski points out that stands to reason: self-flagellation is “turning into a bit of a habit” at the IMF. (See the Argentine and Asian editions.)

The European Commission is defending policies that have become plainly indefensible. Choosing to restructure Greece’s debt earlier would have led to a “systemic contagion”, a commission spokesman said, failing to note the impact of delaying a restructuring. Mario Draghi offered an odd dismissal that simply characterized the report in Rumsfeldian terms: “These mea culpas are a mistake of historical projection. You judge things that happen yesterday with today’s eyes”.

Mohamed El-Erian concludes a fault line lies between the Fund’s respected analysis, on the one hand, and policy execution that bows “to pressure from its political masters in advanced economies”. — Ben Walsh